Beef Up Your Skeleton: Yoga for Osteoporosis

Images of witches, ghosts, black cats, zombies and skeletons abound this month. These iconic images are meant to be scary, and some of them are—although I have to say that having lived with a few black cats in my life, they’re not at all scary. Halloween images are nonetheless meant to evoke a bit of fear and apprehension.

When you see an image of a skeleton, the first thing that comes to mind is probably not osteoporosis. Nonetheless, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, 10 million of us are currently living with osteoporosis, and 34 million are currently at risk for the disease.

How Can Yoga Help?

There are many simple things you can start doing now, at any age, to prevent the disease:  Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, get regular exercise, increase your Vitamin D and Calcium/Magnesium intake. But if you’re reading this blog at all, you probably practice yoga. Does yoga count as an exercise that can help keep your bones strong?

Dr. Loren Fishman says yes. In this interview (read the whole thing—it’s very informative), he explains why yoga helps keep our bones strong:

“Yoga helps grow bone mass, but because yoga poses pull and stretch the bones from every conceivable angle, yoga also may stimulate the formation of a bone structure that is able to resist greater amounts of pressure, as well as many different types of challenges.

“…there are numerous other important ways in which yoga benefits people with osteoporosis, such as improving balance, muscular strength, range of motion and coordination, while lessening anxiety.  These are other important benefits of yoga for people with osteoporosis because they each help reduce the risk of falling.”

Yoga for Osteoporosis

Here are my ideas about yoga for osteoporosis, specifically, how different classes of poses help keep your bones healthy:

Standing Poses and Balance Poses:  Promote balance, use weight bearing to strengthen bones, stretching leg muscles along bones pulls and stretches the bones.

Backbends:  Counteract the tendency to hunch forward as  your bones weaken.

Twists and Lateral Stretches:  Keep the thoracic region (upper back) mobile.

Forward Bends:  Reduce stress, stretching muscles along bones pulls and stretches the bones. Make sure when you bend forward that you always bend from your hip joints, and not from your waist. If necessary, bend your knees in order to accomplish this.

So don’t let your own skeleton scare you. Dive into your practice, knowing that not only does yoga make you feel good now, it will likely make your life happier—and much less scary—in the future.